The United States patent and trademark office administers a program
called the "disclosure document program". The concept is the same as
"Soleau Envelope". You send two identical copies of your idea in
together with a self addressed stamped envelope, and a filing fee of ten
dollars, they stamp both, file one and return the other to you in the
envelope. The purpose of this program is two-fold. It establishes that
on the date that the document was stamped that an individual, group, or
organization had an idea, design, concept, or information that they
wanted to register with the US Government. The patent and trademark
Office will maintain their copy of the information for a period of two
years. After that time the document will be destroyed. This document
does not provide any specific legal protection. It does not replace a
patent or trademark. What it does do is further demonstrate "diligence
in the development of an idea" and a registered date of conception,
necessary should the subject in question enter into litigation prior to
the issue of a patent or trademark.

I hope this helps

Craig

------------------------------------

Phil Dickens wrote:

> Marshall,Sorry for coming into this late but I am wading through my
> new year emails!In France there is a system called 'Soleau Envelope'
> where you buy two envelopes from the French Patent Office. In each
> envelope you place a design or process information or whatever. You
> send the two sealed envelopes to the French Patent Office and they
> stamp them and send one back to you for reference. This is not a
> patent but it does give you some protection if someone tries to take
> out a patent as you can show that you already had the technology.This
> is a form of registered trade secret and really just a defensive
> mechanism. I believe other countries have similar systems.Hope this
> helps.Phill P.S. I still need to sue for the blood at TCT
> Conference!Prof. P. M. Dickens
> Dept. of Engineering & Technology
> De Montfort University
> The Gateway
> Leicester
> England LE1 9BH
>
> Tel: +44 (0)116 257 7689
> Fax: +44 (0)116 257 7025
> Mobile: +44 (0)7768 827039
> Email: pdickens@dmu.ac.uk> <http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/RMG/Welcome.htm>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marshall Burns [mailto:Marshall@Ennex.com]
> Sent: 04 January 2001 17:01
> To: Earl Dunlap; rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi> Subject: Re: STAT Press Release
>
> Earl, Okay, those are trade secrets. But as far as I
> know there is no way to register a trade secret and the Coke
> formula is not registered anywhere. When you said your
> company has two registered trade secrets I was wondering if
> you know something that I don't.Best regards,
> Marshall Burns
> President, Ennex Corporation Marshall@Ennex.com> Los Angeles, USA, (310) 397-1314
> http://www.Ennex.com>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Earl Dunlap
> To: marshall@ennex.com ; rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi> Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2001 04:20
> Subject: FW: STAT Press Release
> Marshall,Thank you for your interest. The best
> way I can explain it to you is Coke and Pepsi have
> trade secrets not patents. This is a way to
> protect proprietary material better.Regards,Earl
> Dunlap
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-rp-ml@ltk.hut.fi> [mailto:owner-rp-ml@ltk.hut.fi]On Behalf Of
> Marshall Burns
> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 9:03 PM
> To: Earl Dunlap; rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi> Subject: Re: STAT Press Release
> Earl, You say you have two registered trade
> secrets. What is a registered trade secret? Best
> regards,
> Marshall Burns
> President, Ennex Corporation Marshall@Ennex.com> Los Angeles, USA, (310) 397-1314
> http://www.Ennex.com>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Earl Dunlap
> To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi> Sent: Wednesday, January 3, 2001 11:40
> Subject: FW: STAT Press Release
> Carl,I am not offended at all and I
> have been fielding alot of questions on
> STAT fro two weeks now. We will be
> published in some trade magazines over
> the next few months and maybe we will
> let a little more information out but
> for the two main parts of what makes
> STAT work will stay a registered "Trade
> Secret". To answer your question about
> patents? We do have a patent in process
> and 2 registered trade secrets. We
> started selling this is November 1999 on
> a limited bases so we could develop and
> refine the process.We are combining
> traditional rapid tooling and composite
> technology. We use a 2 layer coating
> process on parts of the tool to handle
> heat and pressures. We have adapted
> molding presses with special setups to
> handle the STAT molds so pressures and
> heat does not hurt the STAT tool. We
> have compared in our press release other
> technologies as to capabilities.
> Unfortunate this is all I can release at
> this time along with the other
> information in that press release. I
> hope this helps satisfy your
> questions. Again, I apologize to you if
> you thought I was unset at your
> questions. I will gladly answer your
> questions if I can. Again, I invite you
> to visit Catalyst if you
> can?Regards,Earl DunlapVice President
>